In accordance with the recent trend towards the miniaturization of electronic products, multilayer ceramic electronic components have also been required to have a small size and high capacitance.
Therefore, various methods for decreasing thicknesses of dielectric layers and internal electrodes and increasing the number of dielectric layers and internal electrodes in multilayer ceramic electronic components have been attempted, and multilayer ceramic electronic components in which thicknesses of dielectric layers are decreased and numbers of stacked dielectric layers are increased have been recently manufactured.
In addition, as external electrodes have also been required to have a decreased thickness, a problem in which a plating solution permeates into a chip through the external electrodes having the decreased thickness may occur, such that it is technically difficult to miniaturize the multilayer ceramic electronic component.
Particularly, when shapes of the external electrodes are non-uniform, there is an increased risk that the plating solution will permeate through portions of the external electrodes having a reduced thickness, such that a problem may occur in terms of securing reliability.
When forming external electrodes using an existing dipping method, or the like, the external electrodes are formed on head surfaces corresponding to end surfaces of a ceramic body in a length direction, and four surfaces (hereinafter, referred to as “band surfaces”) contacting the head surfaces, and it may be difficult to uniformly apply a paste for forming the external electrode due to generation of dispersion in the body and fluidity and viscosity of the paste, such that a difference in a thickness of the applied paste may be generated.
In addition, the plating solution may permeate through a portion of an external electrode in which the paste is thinly applied due to a decrease in density of the portion, reducing the reliability, and glass beading or blisters where glass is exposed to a surface may be generated in a location in which the paste is thickly applied, such that a thickness of a plating layer should be increased in order to solve a plating defect and a shape defect.
Therefore, when a thickness at which the paste for the external electrode is applied is thin and uniform, a formation area of the internal electrodes may be increased, such that capacitance may be significantly increased as compared to an existing capacitor having the same size. Therefore, research has been conducted into the technology described above.